Texas’ Drug Treatment Centers Need to Encourage More Admissions

At Elite Rehab Placement we pride ourselves on taking as much stress as possible out of the rehab process. It’s hard work to call several different rehab centers and listen to their sales team tell you why they are the best possible option for you. We’ve already done all of the research and work with several high quality centers, all over the nation, that we are intimately familiar with.

A 2013 report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse showed a dramatic increase in the number of young people in Texas who abuse heroin.

A more significant finding is the increased inappropriate use of prescription opioid pain relievers especially methadone, hydrocodone, and oxycodone. Benzodiazepines have been observed to be increasingly used by younger Texans as well. Whether or not this data will provide the impetus for Texas’ drug treatment centers to rethink their strategies remains to be seen. The mortality rate for drug overdose is significantly lower compared to other states in the country. In 2013, the age adjusted mortality rate was pegged at 9.3 per 100,000 population. This diminished a little bit the following year at a rate of 9.7 per 100,000 posting a total of 2,601 deaths. Compared to California’s 11.1 per 100,000 mortality rate for 2014, Texas actually fared a lot better.

While Texas enjoys a more favorable drug overdose mortality rate in relation to the rest of the United States, its addiction treatment admissions was one of the worst in the nation. In 2013, only 0.17 percent of Texas’ population ever sought treatment for their substance addiction. The trend seemed to suggest that instead of increasing treatment admissions, many Texans are shying away from the state’s drug rehab facilities. There was almost a 16 percent decline in treatment admissions from 2008 and around 2.3 percent decline from 2012. Among those who sought admission, around 22 percent were from marijuana addiction, around 14 percent were due to heroin addiction, and around 9 percent were due to prescription opioids.

The rather dismal number of treatment admissions in the state’s numerous drug rehabilitation facilities cannot be solely blamed from the treatment centers themselves. One needs to understand why a lot of people simply do not want to expose themselves to law enforcement agencies should they admit themselves to an addiction center. While state authorities have also introduced the Good Samaritan Law to encourage drug dependents to actively seek professional treatment, many are still doubtful whether they are going to receive fair treatment or not.

Nonetheless, Texas drug rehabilitation and treatment centers must try to think of newer ways on how they can increase the number of treatment admissions. Social support groups in communities can be leveraged on to increase the information dissemination campaign of addiction centers. While internet and social network marketing activities have all been increased, there is still much to be desired in the drug treatment landscape of Texas.

At any rate, the drug rehab facilities in the state can only hope that re-education and information dissemination campaigns together with increased marketing activities can hopefully improve the number of treatment admissions this time around. With treatment centers that are staffed by some of the nation’s best health care providers and equipped with the most modern treatment facilities, it will really be a shame if these are not properly utilized by the drug dependent population of Texas. The focus now is on the creation of strategies to improve treatment admission coverage.